of
his delay, knowing that his father, King Aegeus, and all the people of
his country, were looking for him anxiously.

Therefore he told what was in his heart to Minos, who sighed, and said,
'I knew what is in your heart, and I cannot say you nay. I give to you
my daughter as gladly as a father may.' Then they spoke of things of
state, and made firm alliance between Cnossos and Athens while they both
lived; and the wedding was done with great splendour, and, at last,
Theseus and Ariadne and all their company went aboard, and sailed from
Crete. One misfortune they had: the captain of their ship died of a
sickness while they were in Crete, but Minos gave them the best of his
captains. Yet by reason of storms and tempests they had a long and
terrible voyage, driven out of their course into strange seas. When at
length they found their bearings, a grievous sickness fell on beautiful
Ariadne. Day by day she was weaker, till Theseus, with a breaking heart,
stayed the ship at an isle but two days' sail from Athens. There Ariadne
was carried ashore, and laid in a bed in the house of the king of that
island, and the physicians and the wise women did for her what they
could. But she died with her hands in the hands of Theseus, and his lips
on her lips. In that isle she was buried, and Theseus went on board his
ship, and drew his cloak over his head, and so lay for two days, never
moving nor speaking, and tasting neither meat nor drink. No man dared to
speak to him, but when the vessel stopped in the harbour of Athens, he
arose, and stared about him.

The shore was dark with people all dressed in mourning raiment, and the
herald of the city came with the news that Aegeus the King was dead. For
the Cretan captain did not know that he was to hoist the scarlet sail if
Theseus came home in triumph, and Aegeus, as he watched the waters, had
descried the dark sail from afar off, and, in his grief, had thrown
himself down from the cliff, and was drowned. This was the end of the
voyaging of Theseus.

* * * * *

Theseus wished to die, and be with Ariadne, in the land of Queen
Persephone. But he was a strong man, and he lived to be the greatest of
the Kings of Athens, for all the other towns came in, and were his
subjects, and he ruled them well. His first care was to build a great
fleet in secret harbours far from towns and the ways of men, for, though
he and Minos were friends while they both lived, whe